Daycare costs are almost half my salary

I have a decent career in the insurance world and make decent money. I'm still on my leave, going back in November. I found a good daycare right near my office and did the math - looks like it will be almost 50% of my take home pay to cover costs - a bit less bit close. Is this typical? It hurts me to think that I'm letting someone else be with my baby all day while I work and then get half of my salary. Have you all experienced this? Should I quit? We can get by on one salary for a while. I'm confused. Can you tell? :)

Comments (89)

I am a SAHM but I was thinking about getting something very part time on nights and weekends (like 10 hours a week or less) just for a little extra cash. But dh is on call on the weekends and until 8 o'clock at night during the week so if we ever did have to pay for a babysitter we would have to pay them almost the same as what I would be getting paid so it just would not be worth it.

Ours is 1200 for the first kid, 800 for the second. We will pay 2000 a month, which is almost my salary but if I leave my job until the kids go to kindergarten, I can never get a job in the same field. They are only hiring 3yrs or less these days and I cost too much if someone was to hire with more experience, since I have 12 yrs and a masters degree. So, while it does suck, we do daycare.

Do you have a reasonable amount of debt (mortgage and maybe student loans only) and is your emergency fund fully funded? Are you on track for retirement savings? Is there enough room in the budget without your income for spousal IRA contributions for you? Do you have enough cash in the bank OUTSIDE of your emergency fund to cover any upcoming expenses (like an new roof, a/c, windows, etc.)

How many kids are you having, and what's your spacing? If you are going to try to have more kids (let's say another one) and have the kids 18 months a part, then, yes, I could see quitting when #2 comes along. However, if you decide that you'll have 3, spaced over 8 years, well, then no I wouldn't quit.

How hard will it be for you to get back into your profession?

I have 3, and daycare would run about 2K/month during the school year and about 2500 for the summers. We live in a medium COLA. My DH works part time, so our daycare costs are quite less. We always planned on the one income lifestyle, so we haven't had to "sacrifice" anything.

ouch! We pay my friend who is a stay at home mom and our monthly costs for daycare is only 10% of our take home pay. We also choose to pay for full time care even though we only at most need 3 days per week - just in case DH needs to take care of things on his days off and can't watch LO.

If we had chosen a daycare center, it would've been 20% of our take home pay.

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Lesley (29) and my DH Steve (28)...BFF's since 1996, together since 2005, married in 2010.

One of my paychecks is just a bit more than what a month's daycare is for us (that is full time for this april LO and afterschool care for 2 DDs). I know it's depressing to think about it but, 2 incomes is a must for us. :(

We pay 233/week for our daycare, the one we really like is 309/week but I can't justify the extra money for a nicer facility. It's about 40% of my net pay, but I know a lot of people in my office make a lot less and pretty much don't take home any money after they subtract day care expenses and their portion of insurance & retirement benefits. So they are pretty much working 40 hours/week to have our employer pay for most of their health insurance, a very sad example of our health care system.